[0001] This invention relates to trusted identities on a trusted computing platform, in
particular, to a method of creating trusted identities on a trusted computing platform.
[0002] Application WO 00/48063 of the present applicant discloses a security solution to
allow a user of a trusted computing platform (TCP) to check the integrity of that
platform. That prior application is incorporated herein by reference. That application
also discloses the possibility of providing multiple platform identities consisting
of a cryptographic key and digital certificate. A platform may have several identities,
which might be used for interactions with different parties. Each platform in a transaction
can check the other's identity to verify that the other is a TCP and is working as
expected. In the TCP specification disclosed above such multiple identities remain
completely separate. The multiple identities, consisting of a cryptographic key and
certificate are known as labels. For each label which is created, a trusted device
(TD) in the user's trusted platform generates a public/private key pair for use with
the new identity/label.
[0003] For an entity of any kind (such as a computing platform, identity or service) to
be trusted, in this context, means that a third party can have some level of confidence
that the entity has a stated identity, is not subject to unauthorised modification,
or both. In the case of a trusted device, this is achieved by physical and logical
isolation from other functional elements of a computing platform - communication with
the trusted device is controlled in such a manner that communications received by
the trusted device will not subvert it and that communications received from the trusted
device can themselves be trusted.
[0004] The inventive insight of the present applicant has determined that a technical problem
exists in how a trusted service may be provided in order to allow a user of a TCP
to control, amend or create a trusted user identity having a combination or subset
of personal data associated with that particular user. It is an object of the present
invention to address this problem.
[0005] According to a first aspect of the present invention a method of producing a trusted
identity for a user of a trusted computing platform (TCP) is characterised by comprising:
sending at least one existing identity certificate of the TCP and personal data of
the user to a certification authority (CA),
the CA then verifies the or each identity certificate and the personal data,
on successful verification the CA produces at least one new identity certificate incorporating
at least some of the personal data and sends the or each new certificate to the user.
[0006] The personal data may be included in the or each existing identity certificate sent
to the CA.
[0007] The new certificate may be an amended existing certificate.
[0008] The new certificate may be sent to the user with a new private key.
[0009] The new identity certificate preferably includes a label and a public key, together
with the personal data. The label is preferably a textual string, which may be an
alphanumeric string, and is preferably chosen by the user.
[0010] The or each existing identity is preferably signed by a trusted device (TD) of the
TCP.
[0011] The new identity certificate is preferably anonymous, in that the personal data is
vouched for by the CA, the public/private key pair is derived from random numbers
and the label is chosen by the user.
[0012] Thus, the user can advantageously obtain a new trusted identity based on one or more
existing trusted identities and incorporating a subset of a union of the existing
trusted identities or simply a union thereof. That new identity can also be underivable
from the existing identity or identities on which it is based. Furthermore a third
party can trust the new identity based on its trust of the verification performed
by the CA.
[0013] The personal data may be personal credentials of the user. The personal credentials
may be personal details or information relating to the user, which may include, age,
occupation, income, gender, interests, details of membership of groups, clubs etc
and/or possession of bank/credit cards, property etc.
[0014] The personal data may be used to allow a user to obtain benefits in the form of discounts
from third parties, credit points and/or preferred status.
[0015] The new identity is preferably formed with a view to obtaining said benefits. The
personal data in the new identity is preferably chosen to obtain said benefits.
[0016] The personal data may be one or more trust values, which may be a numerical benefit
and/or credits and/or points already accrued or owned by the user. The numerical value
and/or credits and/or points may be a bank balance, loyalty card points, a credit
worthiness score, a level of credit worthiness or the like.
[0017] The personal data may be copyable, for example credit worthiness, always the case
for personal credentials or may be non-copyable, for example a number of credit points
or a bank balance in the case of some trust values.
[0018] The copyable personal data may be copied from an existing identity of the user to
the new identity by the CA.
[0019] The non-copyable personal data may be transferred, collated and/or divided by the
CA between identities or into one or more new identity certificates.
[0020] Thus, the CA can advantageously verify to a third party that a user has a given trust
value, which may be an amount of credit or points etc, and can transfer those points
in a trusted protocol between a user's identities.
[0021] The user may be the CA. An issuer of the existing identities may be the CA.
[0022] According to a second aspect of the present invention an identity certificate for
a user of a trusted computing platform (TCP) comprises a public key, an alphanumeric
label and personal data of the user.
[0023] According to a third aspect of the present invention a computer is characterised
by comprising a trusted computing platform (TCP) having at least one existing identity
certificate and is operable to send said at least one identity certificate and personal
data of a user to a certification authority (CA) for verification, and in which the
computer is operable to receive from the CA a new identity certificate incorporating
at least some of the personal data.
[0024] According to a fourth aspect of the present invention there is provided a certification
authority for providing a trusted identity for a user of a trusted computing platform,
wherein the certification authority is adapted to receive at least one existing identity
certificate of the trusted computing platform (TCP) and personal data of the user,
the certification authority verifies the or each identity certificate and the personal
data, and on successful verification, the certification authority produces at least
one new identity certificate incorporating at least some of the personal data and
sends the or each new identity certificate to the user.
[0025] All of the features disclosed herein may be combined with any of the above aspects,
in any combination.
[0026] Specific embodiments of the present invention will now be described, by way of example,
and with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
Figure 1 is a schematic representation of the interaction between a user having various
identities and a combined identity, a privacy certification authority and a third
party service provider; and
Figure 2 is a flow diagram of the steps involved in a first embodiment of the invention;
and
Figure 3 is a flow diagram of a second embodiment.
[0027] The trusted computing platform (TCP) identities referred to above are independent
from one another. Thus when applied to a user having different identities a third
party is not able to determine how many other identities a given user has.
[0028] A trusted certification authority (CA) service is proposed in order to allow a user
to control a combination or subset of personal credentials associated with different
trusted identities of the user (e.g. ID1, ID2, ... IDN) to create a new identity (IDN+1)
that may be used by the user to entitle him to access or obtain a third party service,
which may for example be based on discounts, credits and/or loyalty points by virtue
of the information contained in one of the user's different trusted identities (ID1...IDN).
[0029] However, the combined identity must protect other information about the user which
it is not necessary to divulge in order to obtain the third party service. Also, the
trusted CA service must be trusted in the sense that third party service providers
must trust that the personal credentials of the new identity IDN+1 do correspond,
at least to a partial extent, to the trusted identity of the user. Furthermore the
third party service provider must not be able to infer from the combined identity
IDN+1 that any of the identities ID1 to IDN refer to the same individual. Thus, third
party service providers are prevented from building up a profile of the owner of these
identities, which may have been possible, for example, by using other features of
for example IDJ, where J is between 1 and N.
[0030] The TCP specification disclosed in WO 00/48063 and further disclosed in the Trusted
Computing Platform Alliance (TCPA) specification, see for example www.trustedpc.org,
discloses a platform identity that is not a simple serial number, but a cryptographic
key and certificate. The platform identity disclosed can be verified by a trusted
certification authority (CA), which confirms that the platform conforms to the specification
without revealing anything else about the platform or its user. A platform may have
several identities which might be used for interactions with different parties. Each
platform that is party to a transaction can check the other's identity to verify that
the other is a trusted platform and is working as expected. In the TCP/TCPA specifications
such identities remain completely separate and there is no mention of how a user might
be able to combine or subdivide such identities in order to achieve benefits for protecting
their privacy as far as possible.
[0031] It is the inventive realisation in the present specification that the different identities
of platforms allowed by the TCP/TCPA specifications can be used to allow different
identities of user, each independently verifiable by a CA based on the cryptographic
key and certificate used to define the identities ID1 to IDN mentioned above. These
identities can include personal credentials of the user, such as age, gender, interests,
personal information etc, as described in the first embodiment. In the second embodiment
below the identities include trust values, such as credit rating, bank balance, a
number of loyalty points, which values have generally been assigned on the basis of
purchases or deposits made to a certain value. Personal credentials are different
to trust values; a trust value may be a specific quantity of a personal credential,
e.g. a personal credential may be the possession of a credit limit, whereas the trust
value may be a credit limit of £1000.
[0032] In the first embodiment a CA is used to associate one or more of a user's identities
with personal credentials of the user and to provide a certification service to certify
that the personal credentials are correct. The personal credentials for example may
be that a person is an academic, belonging to a certain company, the person's year
of birth, field of job, job description or other such information which may include
income, interests etc.
[0033] A user would not necessarily wish every identity to be associated with the same personal
credentials.
[0034] A new identity could be created either at the same time as the TCP identity creating
process conducted initially as described in the TCP specification and the TCPA specification
or the new identity could be created afterwards. A new identity and its associated
certificate might be valid only for a certain time, in cases where the feature certified
by the new identity is likely to be a temporary one.
[0035] As shown in Figures 1 and 2, an implementation of a first embodiment is described
below.
[0036] In a situation where a user saw a benefit in combining one or more of his personal
credentials in order to receive a more beneficial third party service, he would choose
a privacy CA 10, which might be the same as a standard CA that issued his original
identity certificate. Such a privacy CA 10 may be an employer, a consumer association
or other independent and trusted body. This privacy CA would inspect the certificates
corresponding to the various identities, e.g. ID1 to IDN to be combined. The privacy
CA 10 would then enter into a protocol with a customer, which would be an extended
TCP protocol, extended by adding the personal credentials of the user. The protocol
also involves a trusted device (TD) 11 of the user, which TD 11 is located on the
user's TCP 12 and is the source of the trusted identities. The protocol would result
in a new identity, IDN+1 being issued, which identity is associated with some sub-set,
specified by the user, of the union of the personal credentials associated with the
various identities ID1 to IDN, or a partial set of one of the identities of the user.
[0037] The protocol is implemented as follows. In the TCP specification and the TCPA specification,
the platform identity, or the user's identity, ID1 to IDN, is a cryptographic identity,
based upon an asymmetric encryption algorithm, such as the well known RSA algorithm
used for public key infrastructures (PKI). The public part of the platform identity
is a digital certificate, containing a label and public key, all digitally signed
by the privacy CA 10. At the owner's discretion, the public part is distributed. The
private part of that identity is a private key, which is a secret known only to the
TD 11 inside the user's TCP. To prove that some particular data originated at a particular
TCP, the TCP 12 creates a digital signature over that data, using its signature key.
The TCP 12 sends the data, plus the signature, plus the certificate to a peer entity,
which in this case would be a third party service provider 14, which then verifies
the trustworthiness of the certificate by inspecting the signature on the certificate.
Next, the service provider 14 uses the public key inside the certificate to verify
the origin and integrity of the data.
[0038] The user may obtain as many of these identities as he wishes based on different combinations
of his personal credentials. The keys are necessarily derived from random numbers.
The label is any textual string chosen by the user. Consequently, the identities are
anonymous.
[0039] Using the TCP techniques set out in the prior application referred to above and in
the TCPA specification, the privacy CA 10 chosen by the user of a TCP 12 uses the
TCP credential and endorsement credential to verify that a platform is a trusted platform
with a genuine TD 11. The privacy CA 10 also checks that certain features pertaining
to the user are in force and therefore that the privacy CA 10 is willing to attest
to identities of that TCP 12 (or user) associated with these features. In particular,
the privacy CA 10 attests to the TD's 11 identity by creating information that binds
the identity key to various identity labels and information about the platform and
the Trusted Platform Subsystem (TPS - as described in the TCPA specification) and
selected features. Only the privacy CA 10 can trace the personal credentials in the
identity back to the owner (user). Preferably, on request by the user, the privacy
CA 10 collates a subset of these personal credentials and creates a new identity (IDN+1)
that binds the identity to a new label chosen by the user, and information about the
platform and the subset of the personal credentials.
[0040] It is important that the certificate corresponding to the new identity does not explicitly
refer to any of the identities ID1 to IDN. The user can then use IDN+1 in transactions
by sending the corresponding certificate for identity IDN+1 to a potential third party
service provider 14, who can then verify that the identity corresponds to a TCP 12
and will trust that the user has the associated personal credentials if he trusts
the chain of trust in what may be a number of CAs leading up to the privacy CA 10
that issued the identity certificate for IDN+1.
[0041] Such a process can be used many times, thereby building up a hierarchy of identities
from which a user, or a user's agent, can select for use in a particular purpose.
A user should ensure that a privacy CA's 10 policy concerning the use and any disclosure
of his identities meets the user's own privacy requirements. It may be possible for
a user to act himself as a privacy CA if he has sufficient credibility, or does not
need to prove himself to other parties. The issuer of the identities on the TCP may
also be the privacy CA.
[0042] The ability to provide combined personal credentials as described above is a benefit
in situations where certain criteria have to be satisfied by a user in order for him
to be eligible for a particular service, discount, credit, loyalty point or the like.
Examples include academics being given a discount of 10% on computer goods, loyalty
points being offered in return for surveys completed by people under 25 working for
a hi-tech company, online financial advisors attracting the interest of people earning
more than £50,000 with online current bank accounts, many more examples are possible.
[0043] It is also possible to provide different levels of intended privacy to a user who
wishes to create a new identity. The privacy CA 10 may in its policy offer different
levels of privacy for combined identities, such levels of privacy may be offered for
example in a low level for a user's occupation, or a high level for personal information
relating to the user or the ability to access confidential records of the user.
[0044] Figure 3 shows a second embodiment of the invention, which relates to the combination
or transfer of trust values of the user, rather than the personal credentials described
in the first embodiment. The difference between the two is described above.
[0045] A particular implementation of the second embodiment also uses multiple user identities
for a user of the TCP 12. One example of a combination of credentials or transfer
of credentials would be for transfer of credit or credit status between trusted identities
ID1 and ID2, both of which belong to the user, without revealing the relationship
between the identities. Thus, the identities described above could be used in order
to set up a new trusted identity with a particular credit clearance (trust value),
certified by the privacy CA 10.
[0046] New trusted identities are initially a blank start for a customer in the sense that
the identity must work to gain preferred status from retail companies. An existing
trusted identity of a user may have already achieved such status. The problem arises
that the user may accumulate credits (trust values) with concurrently existing identities
relating to the same person. If the customer wishes to use a separate identity, a
trusted service, such as the trusted privacy CA 10 disclosed above, is needed to allow
appropriate transfer of trust-related credit (trust values) from one identity to another
to create a new or updated identity. It is also important to protect the anonymity
of the customer, but at the same time the third party service provider 10, or retail
company must trust that the credits (trust values) associated with the identity are
trustworthy.
[0047] Currently, retail trust related credit is tied to a specific account or an individual
and transfer of such credit neither involves trusted identities nor allows the owner
to remain anonymous. In particular, there are privacy concerns related to retailers
building up detailed profiles of customers and collating and/or selling such information.
Such privacy concerns are avoided in that the TCP specification and the TCPA specification
allows owners of trusted platforms to have multiple anonymous trusted identities.
However, the TCP/TCPA specifications do not deal with the issue of transferring trust-related
credit (trust values) between these identities. Consequently, this invention relates
to the transfer of accumulated credit anonymously in such a way that the retailer
or third party service provider 14 cannot link the identities ID1 to IDN from which
the trust is being transferred, but can nevertheless be sure of the status of that
identity.
[0048] A trusted identity, e.g. ID1, that is used in e-commerce may gain "credit" in the
eyes of retailers of two main types. A first type is a copyable type of credit, such
as security clearance rating, financial credit rating, frequent flyer status. The
second type would be a non-copyable type of credit, for example an outstanding balance
on an account, vouchers, loyalty points (e.g. air miles), which have an absolute value
that cannot be shared or reproduced, other than by division.
[0049] A user may wish to set up a new identity, IDN+1, that hides links with other identities
to the retailer and yet may wish to adopt those credits from them. Alternatively,
a user may wish to transfer credits within existing identities, ID1 to IDN. It is
important to ensure that any such transferring is done in a trusted way by specific
software trusted by all parties.
[0050] Methods by which the software can protect a user identity include delaying crediting
a new identity after the first identity has been debited, splitting non-copyable credits,
or sharing them between several new identities.
[0051] The person may wish to set up a new identity, IDN+1, that immediately has copyable
credit, e.g. credit rating for a particular retailer. The user may also wish to set
up a new identity and close down the old one and copy across all types of credit.
Also, a user must be prevented from transferring non-copyable credit to other identities.
[0052] In order to implement the above, the privacy CA 10 referred to above provides the
solution in that trust related retail information (trust values) for example associated
with an identity may be migrated to another identity, preferably on the request of
the owner of the original identity. The privacy CA 10 will need to check that the
customer relating to the first identity has given permission, which it can check either
from information received during the process of setting up such identities itself,
or else from corresponding with an issuing CA of the public identity TCP certificates,
mentioned above. The privacy CA 10 also needs to check that the type of trust value
is copyable and further, that it is appropriate to copy this to a second identity.
Such copying may be generalised to copy across multiple identities, for example in
a corporate environment such that all employees are accorded staff benefits.
[0053] The privacy CA 10 can then certify to third party service providers 14 that the appropriate
level of trust values is indeed associated with the second identity, but not reveal
exactly how this came to be or reveal details about the customer relating to the second
identity.
[0054] Whether the third party service provider 14 trusts this information will depend on
whether the third party service provider 14 trusts the privacy CA 10. In the event
of a change of status, e.g. credit status, of the initial identity, the trusted privacy
CA 10 would ensure that the status of each additional identity is changed accordingly.
[0055] The new identity IDN+1 may give a passport into an Internet chat room, may allow
the owner of that identity to obtain rewards, discounts, to answer questionnaires
and to receive corresponding awards, or to allow a user to have information targeted
at that identity, without revealing the remainder of his identity facets.
[0056] In the above the first embodiment addresses the problem of how to prove personal
credentials of an individual in order to obtain access to third party services by
proposing credential combination or subdivision.
[0057] The second embodiment addresses the problem of how to set and associate (perhaps
differing) levels of trust with different identities by copying or transferring trust
values.
[0058] Although the description above has been given in relation to the trusted computing
platform specification of the present applicant, this invention would also be applicable
to different types of trusted platform and trusted device.
1. A method of producing a trusted identity for a user of a trusted computing platform
(TCP) (12) is
characterised by comprising:
sending at least one existing identity certificate of the TCP and personal data of
the user to a certification authority (CA) (10),
the CA (10) then verifies the or each identity certificate and the personal data,
on successful verification the CA (10) produces at least one new identity certificate
incorporating at least some of the personal data and sends the or each new certificate
to the user.
2. A method as claimed in claim 1, in which the personal data is included in the or each
existing identity certificate sent to the CA (10).
3. A method as claimed in either claim 1 of claim 2, in which the new certificate is
an amended existing certificate.
4. A method as claimed in any preceding claim, in which the new certificate is sent to
the user with a new private key.
5. A method as claimed in any preceding claim, in which the new identity certificate
includes a label and a public key, together with the personal data.
6. A method as claimed in any preceding claim, in which the or each existing identity
is signed by a trusted device (TD) (11) of the TCP (12).
7. A method as claimed in any preceding claim, in which the new identity certificate
is anonymous, in that the personal data is vouched for by the CA (10), the public/private
key pair is derived from random numbers and the label is chosen by the user.
8. A method as claimed in any preceding claim, in which the personal data is at least
one personal credential of the user.
9. A method as claimed in claim 8, in which the personal credential(s) are personal details
or information relating to the user.
10. A method as claimed in claim 9, in which the personal data is used to allow a user
to obtain benefits in the form of discounts from third parties (14), credit points
and/or preferred status.
11. A method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 7, in which the personal data is one
or more trust values.
12. A method as claimed in claim 11, in which the trust values are numerical values and/or
credits and/or points, which may be a bank balance, loyalty card points, a credit
worthiness score, a level of credit worthiness or the like.
13. A method as claimed in either claim 11 or claim 12, in which the personal data is
copyable, for example credit worthiness.
14. A method as claimed in claim 13, in which the copyable personal data is copied from
an existing identity of the user to the new identity by the CA (10).
15. A method as claimed in either claim 11 or claim 12, in which the personal data is
non-copyable, for example a number of credit points or a bank balance.
16. A method as claimed in claim 15, in which the non-copyable personal data is transferred,
collated and/or divided by the CA (10) between identities or into one or more new
identity certificates.
17. An identity certificate for a user of a trusted computing platform (TCP) comprises
a public key, an alphanumeric label and personal data of the user.
18. A computer is characterised by comprising a trusted computing platform (TCP) (12) having at least one existing identity
certificate and being operable to send said at least one identity certificate and
personal data of a user to a certification authority (CA) (10) for verification, and
in which the computer is operable to receive from the CA (10) a new identity certificate
incorporating at least some of the personal data.
19. A certification authority for providing a trusted identity for a user of a trusted
computing platform, wherein
the certification authority (10) is adapted to receive at least one existing identity
certificate of the trusted computing platform (TCP) and personal data of the user,
the certification authority (10) verifies the or each identity certificate and the
personal data, and
on successful verification, the certification authority (10) produces at least one
new identity certificate incorporating at least some of the personal data and sends
the or each new identity certificate to the user.